AGE — 20 years old

NATION — Fire Nation

BIRTHPLACE — A tiny island called Ming

 

FACE CLAIM (+BACKUP) — Ju Jingyi (Guan Xiaotong)
 

Standing at a slightly taller than average height, with curves every man wants on a woman and a pretty face, Jia is a stunner. She has long, jet black hair with two parts of her hair (one behind each ear) separated, different sections of both divided by silver hair clasps (like this). A part of her hair is also pulled into a bun by thick Chinese hairpins with senbon inside. However, in her opinion, she think her best feature is her eyes - they're a pretty shade of blue. She walks with a certain grace - most people attribute it to being a dancer but others know better, that's the walk of a deadly fighter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PERSONALITY —

Jia is a very complicated person, to say the least. The many facets of her personality, some of them opposites, shouldn't work but they do.

At her core is a girl with a big heart and open mind. Someone who has a lot of room in her heart, who just wants to help people and make sure everyone is alright. Someone who is very understanding and would accept people for who they are. Someone you would expect to help old ladies and help people for free. She's also a girl who is vivacious and strong-willed. She has spirit and passion. She's enthusiastic and determined and won't give up. She's also really charming - like a bright light in the dark.

However, there's also the other parts of her personality. The "Neutral" part as most people would call. She's observant, for one. She knows what makes people tick, what makes them, well, them. She can tell if something is bothering someone or if someone likes something just by their actions and words. Another is that she's intelligent, very much so. She's clever and knows a lot of things. Couple those two traits together, well, let's just say it's rare for people to get through her.

Then there's other parts of her. She doesn't like people knowing things about her so she's really secretive. Jia is like that one mysterious character in book or shows. She simply likes her privacy. She's also quite manipulative. Thanks to being intelligent and observant, she knows the best ways to manipulate someone according to her plans. She's also pretty ruthless when she wants something or you piss her off. She wouldn't feel an iota of pity or compassion for you. Jia's strongest trait is possibly her ability to deny things. This, coupled with her strong-willed trait, is a heck of a headache. If she wants to deny something (whether because she refuses to believe it or it doesn't fit with her worldview), then she will deny it so fiercely it takes something jarring for her accept it. To be honest, she even denies that she's in denial.

Recently though, she's decided to hide the... less savory parts of her due to her newfound dedication to pacifism (and the fact she has those traits make her fell terrible).

tl;dr: Jia's a sweet, passionate girl who is very intelligent and observant. She's also very manipulative and ruthless, but denies it so bad. She's hiding parts of herself because she's sickened and afraid by it. And I tried making her a complicated person. Please tell me if she's too confusing.
 

BACKGROUND —

Jia is the child of a Fire Nation captain and a Northern Water Tribe-Southern Water Tribe mixed woman. Captain Mao Zhu of the Fire Nation was part of the troops who would kidnap waterbenders. Originally, he had been assigned to the Southern Water Tribe before being transferred to the Northern Water Tribe because they needed more manpower. Mao was one of the more humane Fire Nation soldiers - he would make sure the soldiers wouldn't abuse the prisoners above what was needed and actually healed them when it came to it. That was when he met Akari and her brother Takeru. The two were members of the Northern Water Tribe his unit had captured. Akari hated him at first, but in between everything, they fell in love. His love for her was so deep that he released the siblings and escaped with them.

Despite all odds, they escaped the prison. In between all the travelling, it was revealed that Akari was pregnant. Yes, they did the deed in while in prison. The baby news and the fact Mao was a known traitor now caused them to hurry to go to the Earth Kingdom. They would settle in islands for a week or two to restock before going back to the seas, their original destination in mind (thank goodness Akari had started to teach Takeru healing during their journey and said woman was already an accomplished midwife). Unfortunately, they weren't able to reach the mainland Earth Kingdom by Akari's 8th month, so they decided to settle at the Earth Kingdom island of Ming. It was there that Akari gave birth to little Jia. She was her mommy's jewel and her daddy's star.

They couldn't stay there. The island lacked the feeling of "home." So when Jia was 2 years old, they left for the Earth Kingdom

In the end, they managed to arrive at the mainland Earth Kingdom and stayed in one of the mountain villages called Tang. Akari and Takeru didn't have the typical skin color of the Water Tribes - in fact, they looked pale compared to their fellow tribesmen, though not as pale those of the Fire Nation but it was enough. People would look at the siblings (Mei and Bo) and see the tan skin and black hair and assume they were from the Earth Kingdom - blue eyes were rare but it wasn't uncommon for people to pop up with unusual physical traits. And the man and infant with them, the sister's husband and their daughter, may look like they're from the Fire Nation but they know the traditions and cultures of the Earth Kingdom so they're obviously two of their countrymen.

(People only see what they want to see. But hey, it caused them to survive right?)

But one day, when Jia was 6 years old, the parents decided they needed to move since the Fire Nation was reaching Tang. So they decided to go first, bringing their items with them. The couple didn't have the heart to tell Takeru and Jia that the reason they brought all their things (unrelated with Takeru and Jia) with them was so that if something bad happens, people would think they were travellers or nomads.

The couple ended up meeting Fire Nation soldiers after a couple of days. Unfortunately, one of the soldiers recognized Mao as a traitor and killed them. However, their ruse worked. The soldiers thought they became nomads after escaping their prison. The soldiers left the bodies, vulnerable to the elements. Takeru, ever stubborn, had left Jia with their neighbors and followed the couple a day after they left. A few days later, he found their bodies. He was so distraught at seeing his sister's body (he never cared about Mao, not really - the man could burn in hell for all he cared) that his heart was filled with vengeance.

He came back to Tang and took his niece. Takeru packed all their things and moved them to a higher-class city conquered by the Fire Nation. He established a high-class entertainment bar at the city center and moved into a house with enough a huge space and huge trees as camouflage. Everyday, he would leave his niece at their house, instructing her to learn a new dance to move to, a new song to sing, a certain scenario to act out or a song to play on her erhu or else. It wasn't until he had made enough in his bar that he could put someone else in charge that he started to teach Jia the more dangerous stuff.

First was both Southern-style and Northern-style bending. Akari and Takeru's mother came from the South before she decided to move to the North. She had taught her son the Southern Bending Style, the only thing her husband would allow. Their patriarchal father didn't want his wife to teach their children but conceded to let her teach their son in the end. The next thing he taught her was developing her own fighting style using tessens and senbon. The last was about poisons, manipulation, human anatomy and healing.

Did her uncle care about her? He didn't - all his love for his niece died when he saw his sister's corpse. All he can see in Jia is the man who, in his opinion, is the reason his beloved older sister is dead. If Mao didn't come and sweep his sister off her feet, then she would still be alive. His niece (abomination, his mind whispers) has his hair, pale skin and even her facial structure is that of the damned Fire Nation. The only thing stopping Takeru from throwing Jia off a cliff is her eyes: they're exactly like Akari's. That didn't stop him abusing, manipulating and turning her into a tool for vengeance though.

Jia never thought anything bad of everything her uncle did to her. He was her uncle, after all. He loved her, just like mommy and daddy. Gentle touches and kisses on the forehead were slowly forgotten. Warm hugs and fond smiles became a memory. For her, love was insults and occasional slaps to the cheek. Love was hurt and pain. The bubbly and spirited child slowly disappeared and turned into a silent and obedient one.

(In the back of her mind, she knew what her uncle was doing to her was wrong. But she kept on denying it. Her uncle loved her, right? Right?)

When she was 12 years old, she started to work at her uncle's bar. She would play the erhu, dance, sing and act. She was really popular with the Fire Nation soldiers who missed their own children - they would treat her nicely and give her gifts and the like. (Of course, there were the more erse men, but her uncle made sure they wouldn't get too many ideas - he may have a loathing for the girl, but he had no desire to see Akari's daughter being molested by es.)

Despite everything, the bar was where she could be her true self. She could have an actual personality there, she could be sassy and kind and enthusiastic and smile and laugh - and nobody would mind and everybody liked how she would act, unlike her uncle who would insult or even slap her. Takeru didn't pay any heed to her personality when she was at the bar either and encouraged her to do so, unknowingly giving Jia her safe haven.

Her uncle would tell her to manipulte the men to tell her things and she would. Takeru would sell the information to rebels and informants. He would also kidnap some Fire Nation soldiers in a sporadic pattern so as not to attract attention. He would bring them back to their house and torture and kill them.

It wasn't until she was 14 years old that she spilt blood. Takeru had decided it was time for her to conduct her first kill. And she did. It was scary how easy it was for her to obey, to use her senbon to hit certain parts of his body so he would give them information, to poison him when the information wasn't enough, to slit his throat with her tessen when he gave up.

And well, that was her life for the next 4 years.

It wasn't until her uncle captured another soldier that she changed her mind. He was young, far younger than the ones she would torture or kill. In fact, he was probably even younger than Jia herself. It was obvious he had probably lied about his age in order to join the army. He begged, he screamed, he cried - all the soldier wanted was to make his family proud and love him. Seeing herself torture and kill someone in the same dilemma as she's had her entire life (I'll do anything to make you proud and love me more uncle. I promise.) caused her to snap out of the web of lies her uncles trapped her in.

The next day, she started to go out more. She had enough cunning to make it seem to her uncle that she doesn't want to be too suspicious - she was of marrying age already and it would be make more sense for her to start looking for a husband. Takeru allowed it. Jia would talk to the people more and the more she did, the more she saw how her uncle was just using her. Not every Fire Nation citizen was bad. There were the good ones too: the immigrant merchant who would always give her discounts, the hulking soldier who would stop to give children some treats, the old captain from the bar who would give her presents and would stop erts and es from coming near her.

A month later, as a final act of her ruthlessness and manipulativeness - traits she vows never to use again -, she decided to get rid of her uncle. While he was out at the bar, she planted evidence, packed her bags and roughed herself up. She made sure to run to the forest and hid her weapons there. She sobbed loudly, making sure Fire Nation soldiers would "stumble" upon her. The soldiers asked her what was wrong and she told her "story": how her uncle would abuse her, how he would torture and kill soldiers, how he would sell the information and how he would make her watch and how he wouldn't let her out of the house too much because she knew everything. The soldiers weren't made of stone, and immediately believed her. They consoled her and helped her back to her house, where she showed them the evidence. They immediately arrested her uncle, who shouted she helped him in everything too but nobody believed him (thankfully, he was too high strung to admit the fact that he and Jia's mother were waterbenders). After all, the poor, pretty girl with the bruises and tears couldn't be a part of the torture and murders.

Takeru was summarily executed, his bar and house sold and all his money and other property given to his poor niece, who decided to move to a quiet village called Sui because of the bad memories. The soldiers who escorted her felt sympathy and made sure she was comfortable before leaving the quiet village. Jia felt bad about manipulating them, but it was for the best. Besides, it's not like she's going was going to be ruthless and manipulative anymore. With this new beginning, she wouldn't be ruthless and manipulative - instead she'll be kind and compassionate. She decided to be a healer for the little village she moved to. Violence is sickening and terrible.

(And if she still has a hand on her fan at all times, if the senbon inside her the pins in her hair are still filled with poison, and if her mind automatically categorizes the best way to take someone down and the nearest escape routes, well, habits take a long time to break. Who could blame her?)

tl;dr: Dad was a Fire Nation Deserter who deserted for Mom and her brother (how romantic), years later Dad and Mom were killed (well, at least they died together right?) and uncle went ballistic with revenge. Uncle used and abused Jia, who never really saw it because all she wanted to see was a caring uncle who loved her. That was until a jarring event happened and she caused him to be executed so she could leave for another village. Now, she's a healer and a pacifist.

 

SKILLS —

Waterbending // Jia is proficient in both the Southern-style and the Northern-style. Her uncle was a master and was a very good teacher too. However, she lacks the experience to actually use this. Sure, she could fight Takeru but she's used to his fighting style. Her inexperience coupled with her newfound pacifism and recent refusal to use this, fighting using this would probably give her a hard time. Note: one of the skills she doesn't use often anymore

Healing and Medicine // She had always been good at this, even more so than regular waterbending. She also has a wide knowledge of herbs and the human anatomy.

Dancing // Her uncle thought it would be a good idea for her to blend in better with higher-class society. It's also very useful in his schemes.

Singing // Same above.

Playing the Erhu // Same above.

Acting // Same above.

Tessenjutsu // Takeru (and Jia, in the future) found it stupid that many rely too much on bending so he made sure his niece knew this. What would happen if you don't have the energy anymore? Or if a part of you is crippled and you have a hard time bending without said part? It also gave the benefit of not being something someone would expect unless you're a Kyoshi warrior. Note: one of the skills she doesn't use often anymore

Senbon // Same above. The senbon are also hidden throughout her body and in the pins in her hair. Note: one of the skills she doesn't use often anymore

Poison // People seriously underestimate poisoning your enemies. It's clean, quick (unless you don't want it to be) and not easy to track down unless you make it obvious. This was very vital in capturing Fire Nation soldiers and torturing and killing them. Note: one of the skills she doesn't use often anymore

RELATIONSHIPS — 

• Mother | Akari, 33 (at the time of death), Midwife (dead), Gentle, Kind, Passionate
  
  Akari was a passionate woman who held her own - even in the patriarchal society of the Northern Water Tribe. She was a wonderful wife and loving mother. She loved her daughter a lot, as evident from Jia's surviving memories of her and her journal.
   
• Father | Zhu Mao, 40 (at the time of death), former Fire Nation Army Captain and Fire Nation Deserter (dead), Easygoing, Sharp, Caring
  
  Unlike his countrymen, Mao is a pretty easygoing guy who was a devoted husband and amazing father. His daughter was his and his wife's Little Jewel. For him, she was the most precious thing in existence, as evident in his daughter's memories of him and his journal.
   
• Uncle | Takeru, 52 (at the time of death), Bar Owner (dead), Snarky, Manipulative, Bitter
  
  Takeru used to be a pretty good man, actually. He was vibrant and protective. However, he was too protective of his sister (aka he had a huge Sister Complex). But when his sister and that man died, the need for vengeance overtook his life. A small part of him may have loved his niece, but he desired revenge more. He's a slave to his emotions, really.

Jia thought she would just live out a kind, quiet life in Sui helping people - well, that is until she finds herself in an absolutely insane journey to defeat the Fire Lord. She would learn that sometimes peaceful actions and being kind aren't the best ways to handle a situation - especially in a world at war. She would also learn that living in denial, hiding parts of herself and denying her past isn't a healthy way to live.